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Case File: Brown, Carrie née Montgomery (1891)
[Link to original] – Page 10, Column 2
CARRIE BROWN'S MURDER
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CORONER SCHULTZE BEGINS HIS INVES-
TIGATION OF THE CASE
Coroner Schultze was allowed by the police to begin his inquest yesterday morning into the murder of Carrie Brown at the East River Hotel April 23, and he set about his work with the aid of the following jurymen: Ex-Commissioner Thomas S. Brennan, Manager Henry Clay Miner, George T. Putney of the Hotel Metropole, George Brockway, James Trainor, Richard M. Walters, C. W. Iden, A. F. Slaughter, A. Strassburg, Dr. L. L. Seaman, L. J. Merkel, and Jacob Ruppert, Jr. “Frenchy,” the prisoner, and all the witnesses who have been looked up in the House of Detention were brought down by a squad of detectives.
Mary Corcoran, the housekeeper at the East River Hotel, was the first witness. She was able to tell nothing of interest but the fact that she saw Carrie Brown drinking in the “ladies’ room” of the hotel the evening of the murder. Capt. O’Connor of the Oak Street station told of the appearance of the body when he saw it soon after its discovery, and identified the knife found by the bed. He said that he and the detectives discovered blood spots leading to Room 33, across the hall, “Frenchy’s” room, and blood spots on the bed in that room, a few hours after the murder was made known. Detective Sergeant Crowley cooroborate all this, and said the stains were dug up or cut out that day, but Detective Griffin swore twice that he did not see the stains in question until the following day, (Saturday, April 25.) Deputy Coroner Jenkins told the story of his examination of the body and said death had been caused by asphyxiation.
“Eddie” Fitzgerald, the boy at the hotel, was the witness of the afternoon. He let “Frenchy” in alone on the night of the murder and received twenty-five pennies from him for his room. This was between midnight and morning. He was sweeping out the barroom about 5 o’clock, when he saw “Frenchy” go out, or “sneak out,” as he called it, in a suspicious manner. “Frenchy” kept close to the partition between the barroom and the “box,” and went out by the furthest door, as if to avoid meeting any one.
Dr. Edson of the Health Board was the last witness and simply testified that he had found blood corpuscles in the nail scrapings and on the bits of cloth and board sent to him by the police. He would not call the corpuscles human-blood corpuscles, but admitted he believed them to be. Then the inquest was adjourned till 10:30 o’clock this morning, and the jury, the Coroner, the detectives, the lawyers, and the prisoner rode down in fine style in coaches to the scene of the murder and spent an hour looking over the place.
